Farming and ranching come with many risks that can turn into devastation quickly. For this reason, they need protection tailored to their specific needs.
Farm and ranch insurance typically offers property and liability protection. It is often packaged together as a policy similar to a home insurance policy.
Property Coverage
Whether you run a small family farm or large-scale agribusiness, protecting your property is vital to managing your business. Ranch and farm insurance provides a wide range of protection to safeguard your assets against property damage caused by natural disasters, extreme weather, fire, theft, and other everyday events.
Farm and ranch policies often combine elements of personal and commercial coverages to protect you against a wide range of risks. This can include coverage for your home and possessions; farm personal property like machinery, tools, and equipment; loss of income; and more.
Additionally, some farm and ranch insurance policies provide liability protection similar to a standard homeowners policy. This can cover medical and legal expenses if someone is injured on your property. Some farm and ranch policies may also offer coverage for products like grain, hay, or seeds, though these usually require a separate commercial insurance policy to be protected.
Liability Coverage
Unlike other businesses, farmers and ranchers face various unique challenges. To ensure that they are adequately protected, farm and ranch insurance is available to offer a range of coverages to address these challenges.
Farm and ranch insurance usually offers a package policy that includes a combination of property and liability coverages. These policies are often similar to a business owner’s but customized to reflect the risks that farms and ranches face.
The liability coverage protects the farm or ranch owner from claims for bodily injury or property damage resulting from their agricultural operations. This coverage can also help pay for legal fees and court costs incurred in defending against these claims.
Dwelling coverage helps protect the farm or ranch owner’s residence from damages caused by common perils like lightning, fire, wind, and hail. This coverage can also help reimburse the policyholder for extra living expenses if their home is uninhabitable after a covered loss.
Livestock Coverage
A ranch is unique, and raising livestock comes with different risks. In addition to the standard property and liability coverages, many farm insurance policies include special animal protection for theft or loss of life. This coverage typically covers animals scheduled in the policy (such as cattle or sheep) and those in transit, such as those transported to a slaughterhouse or feedlot.
Depending on the policy, this coverage may also extend to equipment and machinery used in the farm or ranch operation. This can include large systems like irrigation and smaller items like tools and supplies.
Farmers who raise livestock can also purchase risk protection, a government-backed insurance plan that safeguards against declining livestock market prices. It offers a variety of coverage levels and periods to match the time your feeder cattle would generally be marketed (ownership may be retained). Dairy producers can protect against quarterly drops in milk sales with dairy revenue protection, which provides a range of indemnity levels to help stabilize income.
Equipment Coverage
Farm and ranch insurance policies can be tailored to a specific farm or ranch. This customization allows farmers to make sure that they are protected from a variety of unique risks that are endemic to their business.
This is an excellent benefit for farms and ranches as it can help prevent gaps in coverage. For example, the property coverage included in a farm and ranch policy is typically much more robust than typical home insurance.
The equipment coverage of a farm and ranch policy is also often comprehensive. This includes everything from large systems like irrigation to small tools and supplies. It can also have vehicles that are used for farm work. However, in some cases, these might be better covered by a commercial auto policy.
Floater insurance is an optional farm and ranch policy add-on that can help increase the payout limits on high-value items. This is especially important if you have irreplaceable or expensive assets.